1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of data storage and, more particularly, to testing components of a data storage system.
2. Related Art
In the context of computer systems, enterprise storage architectures provide mass electronic storage of large amounts of data and information. The frenetic pace of technological advances in computing and networking infrastructure—combined with the rapid, large-scale sociological changes in the way the way these technologies are used—has driven the transformation of enterprise storage architectures faster than perhaps any other aspect of computer systems. This has resulted in a variety of different storage architectures, such as, for example, direct attached JBODs (Just a Bunch Of Disks), SAN (Storage Area Network) attached JBODs, host adapter RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks) controllers, external RAID controllers, redundant external RAID controllers, and NAS (Network Attached Storage). Each of these storage architectures may serve a special niche, and thus may differ significantly in terms of functionality, performance, cost, availability, scalability and manageability.
Enterprise architectures may utilize disk storage systems to provide relatively inexpensive, non-volatile storage. The multiple disk drives of the data storage system are connected to a server computer (or “nodes”) via a fibre channel network in one exemplary system. The nodes, the disk drives, and the network must all be tested before the data storage system can be sent to a customer for day to day use. This can be quite a complicated process to test the overall functionality of the data storage system, as well as the individual components of the system.
Prior testing methods included either 1.) connecting external devices to the fibre channel network and exercising it with the regular I/O interface, or 2.) connecting the fibre channel connection to a single port in a “loopback mode.” Each of these methods has its drawbacks. Testing with external devices involves reading and writing to the devices and allows high bandwidth testing. However, when connected to external devices, any failure or reduced performance that is detected cannot be solely attributed to the fibre channel connection. It may be due to a problem in any of the connected devices. Tracking down the problem takes significant time and effort and makes an automated procedure extremely complicated if not impossible. Connecting the port in loopback mode requires the use of a special diagnostic interface that can only be exercised at low bandwidths. Loopback mode also does not allow high bandwidth multi-threaded communication and testing.